


The Little Merman: WangXian

by MEOWMIAO



Series: Fairytales for Cultivators [1]
Category: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Founder of Diabolism, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - All Media
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Love, M/M, Merman!Jiang Cheng, Merman!WWX, Prince!LWJ, The Little Mermaid AU, fairytales - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-06-30 22:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15760854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEOWMIAO/pseuds/MEOWMIAO
Summary: A Little Mermaid AU with Merman!WWX and Prince!LWJ :3





	1. The Human

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work in my new series “Fairytales for Cultivators”! It’s a little fun concept I came up with to give me breaks while working out plot kinks in my demon and courtesan fics ;-; 
> 
> I hope you like it and check out the other fairy tales later~

**Beta’ed by the lovely Rurella and 含羡君 from Discord~ They were super helpful in helping me make this fic less terrible!!! <3 ******

********

********

Melodious, cheerful notes floated through the reef. Wei Wuxian was singing again. Amidst the swaying sea grass and the hard coral, all sorts of brightly colored fish and sea creatures shyly gathered around to listen to the song. Several mermaids and even a few mermen sent coquettish looks his way, to which he replied with suggestive winks of his own.

He was singing loudly with all his heart about forks —or something— and spinning around with a particularly large and cute seahorse in his arms.

“Ouch!” Suddenly, Wei Wuxian was hit over the head by a large seashell.

“Jiang Cheng, what are you doing~?” Wei Wuxian turned around and asked the purple tailed merman playfully.

“Stop singing, it’s annoying!” Jiang Cheng said with a scowl. His face lit up a bit as he spoke again, a hint of excitement in his tone. “It seems that there’s a big storm brewing. Want to go up and take a look?” 

“A storm? Sure, let’s go check it out!” Wei Wuxian gave the dizzy seahorse a pat on its head before releasing it from his embrace. He followed Jiang Cheng as he swam up towards The Surface. Every so often, he liked to go up for a breath of fresh air, and he loved the way the sea was eerily calm before or after a storm. He also quite enjoyed collecting those human artifacts that sometimes found themselves in the ocean. A collection of his trinkets was in a little sea cave that was once inhabited by a large sea creature.

The wind was howling ferociously and there was a certain foreboding pressure in the air. Heavy, dark clouds gathered in the gray sky and small splatters of rain began to fall. Wei Wuxian lifted his face to the sky and tried to catch a few drops in his mouth. 

A bright flash of lightning blinded him for a second before he saw how Jiang Cheng was staring at it in wonder. The younger man had always been fascinated by it, which was why every time there was a storm, he insisted on swimming up to see it. Perhaps lightning would be Jiang Cheng’s magical talent, as music and song was Wei Wuxian’s. Although Jiang Cheng was only a few days younger than Wei Wuxian, he still had not discovered his talent, something that frustrated him greatly.

In the distance, Wei Wuxian saw something fluttering in the wind. He squinted, but could not make anything out. He swam a little closer, leaving Jiang Cheng to his thunder and lightning, wondering what that thing in the distance was.

He saw giant waves crash against the side of a solitary boat on the ocean, rocking it violently. He heard panicked voices about how water was slowly filling the boat. 

“SIZHUI!” A distraught man shouted as a small child fell off the boat. A large figure in white dove into the water right after the child and managed to grab and keep the child afloat. The crew quickly sent down a harness to pull the child up. However, before they could send something down for the man, a giant wave pushed the ship away, separating the two. The man fought against the current, trying to swim his way back to the boat, but another wave rose, towering over him before crashing down, pushing the man underwater.

Wei Wuxian, still a ways from the man, dove underwater and swam as quickly as he could towards where he thought the man must have sunk. He couldn’t see him. Looking around, he thought he saw a flutter of fabric. He chased it, diving deeper before he saw him.

The man’s eyes were closed, but he could just imagine how gorgeous they probably would be by looking at the rest of his exquisite features. The man had a noble nose and lips that Wei Wuxian just wanted to touch, and to kiss; to feel how soft they would be against his own. Enraptured by his visage, he almost forgot that humans couldn’t breathe underwater!

He quickly gathered the man into his arms, and sealed their lips together, transferring air to him. With a flick of his luminescent tail, he propelled them to the surface of the ocean, where he hoped the man would begin to breathe again. 

Wondering whether the ship would come back to search for the man, he put his ear against the man’s chest, listening for a heartbeat. It was there, but faint.

Deciding that the oceans were too vast and that humans were too dumb to be able to find the man, he kissed the man again before diving underwater and searching for the nearest land. After asking a few ocean friends for guidance, he arrived at a small beach. Gently laying the man down, he gazed at the man, timidly caressing his smooth skin with his hands. 

Pushing at his chest, Wei Wuxian whispered, “Hey, are you all right? Wake up!” 

No response. 

Wei Wuxian was worried. Did the man die? But he could see his chest faintly rising up and down… he was still breathing… 

A cough suddenly wracked the man’s body, and a spurt of water spilled from his lips. 

Ah! That’s right! He remembered Uncle Jiang telling him that humans only had lungs with which to breathe with and that if they breathed in water, they would do something called “drown”. 

Out of concern for the man’s ability to expel all the water, he decided to help him out.

Wei Wuxian pulled the man’s head to rest on his tail, and pried open the man’s mouth. He began to sing a song. 

It started out soft, and sweet. Gentle, like a calm sea. Then the melody started to crescendo and get faster; from an andante to allegro. His voice sounded like the flow and ebb of waves upon a sandy shore, ringing with the clarity of a cloudlless blue sky. A few seagulls landed on a rock, listening attentively. The crabs scuttling messily through the sand also stopped their movements. Finally, he ended the song with a descending arpeggio and waited, for the magic to happen. 

Globules of water began to float from the man’s mouth, gathering into one big droplet suspended above Wei Wuxian’s open palms.

“Go back to where you belong,” Wei Wuxian said with a smile, throwing the droplet back into the sea. 

He turned back to the man. The man still hadn’t woken up, but he could see his breathing growing a bit stronger and deeper. Wei Wuxian sighed, half in relief, the other half at just how utterly attractive he was.

He started to examine the man again. The man’s top was loosened, revealing jade-like skin and smooth, hard muscle. He touched it gingerly and looked down at his own chest. They looked the same, though his skin was a bit more sunkissed. 

His gaze was drawn down, past the flat torso down to where they weren’t so... similar. He pulled the tight sheath of the two strange tubes of cloth that they used to cover their… legs with, down, revealing another piece of cloth that was much shorter. 

Curious to see what was under there, he also pulled it down and revealed a flesh colored, sea cucumber shaped object that hung between the two… legs.

Immediately his eyes were drawn to the two legs the human had. They were long and smooth like the rest of his body, and at the end of each was an elegant looking…foot! 

_Yes that’s what they’re called!_

He swayed his tail, lifting the ends up from the water, trying to imagine himself with legs and feet. The fins at the end were sort of shaped like feet… 

Suddenly, he heard a small groan. He looked down at the human, who had shifted a little. 

_Perhaps it’s time for me to go._

The man’s head was placed on a nice cushioning of seaweed he found. He looked at the human’s face one last time, engraving his features into his mind just in case they never met again, and dove into the water. A feeling of curiosity arose in his mind; and a bubbly feeling like swimming fish in his stomach. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lightly edited, corrections are always welcome!!! :D
> 
> Oh yeah I changed my Username~ I’m usually MEOWMEOW in most places but it was taken here so I settled with MEOWMIAO :3

Lan Wangji awoke with a pounding headache under the brightly burning Sun. Small waves licked at his feet and he quickly drew them away to avoid getting his pants wet—wait, where were his pants? He only wore a thin undergarment, one that looked to also have been tampered with on his lower half. He looked to the side and there his pants were, haphazardly thrown on the sand. Quickly grabbing them, he brushed the sand off and slid them on. 

Where was he? The last thing he remembered was diving into the ocean and grabbing SiZhui before a giant wave had pushed him under… 

Then he was sinking and sinking, and darkness had filled his vision. And then he wasn’t sinking anymore but in someone’s arms— who had saved him? And where did they go?

Standing up, he stretched his body and combed a hand through his hair, finding a spare piece of seaweed among the strands. Glancing around he realized he actually recognized this place. It was his intended destination before he had almost drowned. Relieved, he wondered by what luck had he become stranded right where he wanted to be. The small beach was part of the summer villa property he and the rest of the Lan family had been heading to.

Smoothing out his shirt that was also a bit rumpled and undone, he began to walk towards the house. As he walked, hints of a melody he didn’t know the name of suddenly played in his head.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Jiang Cheng was probably worried and annoyed. 

But as Wei Wuxian was on his way back, a note of concern for the human struck him. He hoped the the human would actually wake up and not die. Plus, he wanted to see how he would walk on those interestingly long and straight legs. He turned around and swam back in the direction of the shore.

Hiding behind a nearby rock, he observed the human as he sat up and stretched. 

_Nice muscles._

The man finally stood up and Wei Wuxian examined the way he stood carefully. Steadying himself with his hands on the rock, he then positioned himself so that his tail was straight under him and tried to wiggle back and forth, trying to mimic the way that the man walked. When he looked up again, the man was rapping on the door of the large building near the beach. 

“LAN ER-GONGZI!!!” (In canon, Lan Er Gongzi is like “Second Young Master Lan” but Gong-zi so happens to also mean “prince” in Chinese so I’m going to roll with it in the AU too)

A cute, childish voice called as he pushed open the door.

“Wangji, you’re safe!” A man that looked quite similar to the almost drowned man smiled when he saw his brother.

“Brother. I’m sorry to have worried you.” He greeted.

Wei Wuxian looked on with curiosity as the number of humans grew. However, they soon went in and he was no longer able to observe them.

_Lan Er Gongzi. Wangji. Which one is his name? Ah! Maybe it’s supposed to be Lanergongziwangji! Humans have such strange—_

“WEI WUXIAN!”

A hand grabbed his ear and dragged him a few yards back.

“Aaahhhhhh! Jiang Cheng! Why are you doing that?”

Wei Wuxian tried to rescue his ear from Jiang Cheng’s grasp and pretended to be hurt and teary.

“Were you here all this time?! I was looking for you everywhere! The storm has been over for some time and Mother is definitely going to be angry that we were gone for so long!”

“Ah, ahhhh if Madame Yu is going to scold us then I don’t want to go back!!!” Wei Wuxian feigned a horrified expression.

“I’m telling her it was your fault.”

“Haha, okay~” Wei Wuxian grinned carefreely. It really was his fault anyway.

They dived down into the depths of the water smoothly, swimming quickly in hopes they wouldn’t be too late and be scolded.

Lan Wangji came out the backdoor to the beach again and looked out to the sea. He saw something flick up that resembled a large, sparkling fish tail before it quickly disappeared.

Such large fish exist?

He blinked and then found a shady place to sit and read his book. As he set down a small cloth to sit on, something glinting in the sand caught his eye. Going closer, he noticed it was quite close to the clump of seaweed he had woken up on. Brushing bits of sand away, he revealed a large shiny scale that glittered beautifully in the sun. It seemed like it might have come from that big fish he saw just a few moments ago. However, he didn’t quite expect such large fish to swim around shallow areas like the region near the beach. 

He picked up the scale and slipped it into his pocket before retreating back into the shade and opening up his book.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Wei Wuxian twisted so that he was swimming backwards with his stomach facing upwards and put his hands behind his head relaxedly. His tail swished through the water, propelling him along.

“Jiang Cheng, what do you think it’s like to be human?”

“Hm? Don’t tell me you’re up to no good again!” 

Jiang Cheng looked at Wei Wuxian with a frown.

“I’m not! I’m not! Just asking, that’s all.”

“... Did you approach a human? Did they see your tail?”

Jiang Cheng looked suspicious. 

“No! Well, at least I don’t think so.” 

Wei Wuxian ignored the first question. 

“Well, if you were seen, then that’s not good. Father told me that humans are very strange and like to study things. They would have taken you away to do weird things called experiments! …it’d be good riddance though. ” 

“Oh, hmm it’s all right! I can beat them up.” 

Wei Wuxian laughed cheerfully.

He couldn’t imagine that beautiful man trying to capture him and do scary things to him. In fact, Wei Wuxian felt inclined to capture him to look at.

They swam in silence for a while.

“Can merpeople become human?”

Wei Wuxian broke the silence with a question.

Jiang Cheng looked at him strangely again but didn’t answer. He had a bad feeling about this.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

When they arrived back in the Sea-ty, (idkkk I was trying to make a pun on City lol) Madame Yu gave them both a good thrashing with her pet eel and Wei Wuxian retreated to his little cave sheepishly. Once in, he brightened up again as he gazed at his various treasured human baubles.

On the cave wall were various doodles that Wei Wuxian had made with some of the pointy things he found in a little box one day.

He took one up in his hands and began sketching out on a blank area of the cave what he could remember of that dazzling man he rescued.

His memory was a bit foggy and he could only barely recall the arch of his brow, his dignified nose and sensual lips. Perhaps his eyes were dark and mysterious, he imagined, or maybe they were light colored and sincere.

He backed up and looked at the drawing he had made. 

“Hmmm… no this doesn’t look right.” Wei Wuxian spoke aloud.

Perhaps he would have to go visit that man tomorrow. 

All for artistic purposes of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading everyone!!! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments~


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unedited as usual ehehehe ;-;;;
> 
> I've been writing as much as I can before school starts (which is literally in a few days), so advanced warning, my update speed is about to get really wacky :(

And so he did. The next morning, he played Fishy Fishy Cross my Ocean (anyone else remember this from elementary school days? :D) with a bunch of the younger merfolk, taking the role of one of the sharks (Sharks are friends not food). He taught them how to swim faster and more agilely, in the case they actually did need to escape from something. The children loved Wei Wuxian; he was a fun big brother they said, while Jiang Cheng was always grumpy.

Wei Wuxian smirked and wholeheartedly agreed. He bid the children goodbye and paid a visit to the so called “grumpy big brother”, telling him that he was going to go look for more human artifacts that sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes and told him not to get lost, to which Wei Wuxian just responded with a laugh before darting off excitedly.

He swam quickly, heart pounding with anticipation. He really wanted to see Lanergongziwangji again. The trip seemed to take forever; he didn’t remember the little beach being so far away before, but in his excitement, perhaps he had gone astray.

The water seemed to get darker and murkier. Where was he? This certainly was not where land was. Confused, he dove down further, trying to find a landmark of a specific reef or something of the sort, but could only spot a small cave entrance, surrounded by treacherous looking seaweed. Wanting to get a better look, he drew closer.

“Stop. This is the palace of the esteemed sea enchanter Mo XuanYu; he is out right now. Do you have business here?”

A slimy voice came from the depths of the cave.

“Huh? I didn’t know there was an ‘esteemed sea enchanter’. Well, whatever that’s not where I’m going anyway. Do you know which way is to land? I’m looking for a small beach.”

A mud green colored electric eel slid from the cave.

“I’ll show you... for a price.”

“Uhhhh, actually nevermind. I think I know where to go.”

_Looks seedy… definitely not to be trusted._

Wei Wuxian swam in the opposite direction of the cave until he got to clearer waters before asking an amicable crab for directions. The crab gladly complied and was rewarded with a smooch on his shell because Wei Wuxian was feeling particularly in a good mood. It blushed and stayed that way forever, and that kids, is why crabs are red. (Jk they’re only red when you cook them I think? So that means Sebastian from the Disney movie was a cooked crab O.o)

After the arduous journey, he found himself at a familiar place, in shallow waters near the beach. Fish were causing a racket in his stomach again, and his tail swished through the water impatiently.

However, after waiting a short while, there was no sign of his beloved beau. Bitter disappointment filled his mouth and he bit his lip worriedly.

Perhaps the human had died? No, no. He had seen him get up with no problems. Then, the human must have left. Uncle had said that although land was quite small compared to the sea, it was still very vast and humans inhabited almost every part of it. Maybe the human didn’t live here, and had gone home, far far away from here. He probably wouldn’t get the chance to… ever see him again.

His heart ached at that thought. He shook his head; why was he lamenting over a human he saw once?! But suddenly, the door opened and out stepped… the very person he wanted to see!

_Badump. Badump. Badumpbadump._

His heartbeat raced again and he fought the urge to call out to him. Eyes followed the slender figure as he came out with a large piece of folded cloth and promptly spread it out on the pale sand. Then, a second later, the young boy and man that looked akin to Lanergongziwangji came out, the latter carrying a basket and the former a small, dark, floofy thing. The last to follow was an older man that had an irritating goatee and strange drooping mustaches above his lips. Wei Wuxian had a sudden, inexplicable desire to rid of the facial hair.

The boy put the fluffy object down and laughed when it suddenly shot up into the air, and then went to go burrow into the sand. Its nose twitched ever so often and the boy lifted the long, floppy flaps on the side of the thing’s head up and then let them flop down again, giggling in delight at the sight again before feeding it an orange stick like thing.

Old facial hair man called the boy over and as the two, what Wei Wuxian inferenced were brothers began taking food out of the basket and setting it out on the cloth.

Wei Wuxian spent a good few hours watching the humans eat and then relax on the beach before he finally forced himself to leave after they themselves went inside. Humans were so fun! And he really wished he could touch that animal covered in glossy hair. If only it was possible for him to experience the human world… if only he could go and meet that person…

\--

Wei Wuxian began to visit, or rather, watch (stalk) the humans regularly. Sometimes they wouldn’t come out and he would leave, dejected and bored.

However, most times, when he was lucky, he’d catch glimpses of _him_.

Sometimes he’d be reading in the shade. Other times, he’d also bring out the little ball of fluff and feed it orange sticks. On some days, the other humans would come out with him. Some days, the other humans would come out without him, and Wei Wuxian would watch for a bit, but then return back to the Sea-ty.

Once, he’d even gotten the chance to see the man take off his shirt and jump in the water, swimming around to cool off. His strokes were powerful and his kicks strong, moving him fluidly through the water almost like a merman—just without a tail. If he were a merman, Wei Wuxian thought, he would definitely be one of the best swimmers.

_Will he come close to this rock? Will he see me?_

To Wei Wuxian’s relief and disappointment, he did not, but Wei Wuxian was given a somewhat closer view of the man. He was thankful; because artistic purposes of course.

When he returned, to a Jiang Cheng with growing suspicions and sometimes to an irritated Madame Yu, he’d always somehow slip away to work on the increasingly detailed drawing in his little cove. All his observing wasn’t going to waste, after all, and day by day, the drawing began looking more and more like the man that occupied his thoughts everyday.

On one particular day, Jiang Cheng couldn’t stand the misgivings Wei Wuxian’s strange behavior was giving him and followed him to his treasured little… trinket cave. Wei Wuxian was humming a song and shifted a big shell to reveal the pointy things he used to draw.

“Who is that?”

Jiang Cheng’s apprehensive voice asked, alarming Wei Wuxian into dropping the shell.

“Jiang Cheng? Why’re you here?”

Jiang Cheng’s feeling was growing worse by the second.

“Why are you always sneaking off and going places? Why are you…  just drawing this random guy… wait are those legs?”

Wei Wuxian turned to face Jiang Cheng and said wistfully, “Yeah, aren’t they beautiful?”

The drawing wasn’t able to capture the full beauty of the man’s legs. He just, wasn’t used to them and the way they were shaped, causing his drawing to have a slightly clumsy portrayal of them. Having observed them more, though, let him begin to slowly start fixing them.

“Wei Wuxian, you—”

“Jiang Cheng, I think… I want to try being a human.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Sorry for the slow development of the story, I really want them to meet soon too Orz


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's lots of JC in this :3   
> I'm still deciding what to do with him in this story but I do want him to be happy so we'll see~

“Y-you what?!” Jiang Cheng sputtered incredulously.

“A human. People. Two legs, walk on land, y’know.”

Wei Wuxian gestured at the drawing on the wall. 

“You’re mad.”

“I probably am~” Wei Wuxian laughed carefreely, continuing his careful lines.

“But why? What’s wrong with the sea? Father always says—” 

“Yes I know, ‘seaweed always seems greener in somebody else’s lake’; he always says that, and to be honest, we’re not really in a lake, we’re in the sea, but anyway, I don’t want to go just because I think human life is better or anything… I’m just curious… really curious… and I want to—“

_ Sigh.  _

He paused and looked at the sketch on the wall longingly.

“Wei Wuxian. No. Just no.”

The red and black tailed merman pivoted around and looked at Jiang Cheng in the eye. An uncertain feeling had gnawed at him before, but now he had decided on something, and on his lips was only a mischievous smile before he pushed Jiang Cheng out of the cave and dragged him to go find Jiang Yanli for snacks together. 

\-----------------------------------

The three had some sibling bonding time as they shared seaweed salad and sea grapes.

“Mmm! These sea grapes are delicious!!! So crunchy~~” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, boisterous as ever. 

“I knew you would like them, A-Xian, so I gathered lots!”

“You’re the best, jie-jie~~~”

Jiang Cheng internally felt a rush of warmth at the happy scene. 

“Oh, and some oyster friends asked me to help them get rid of the pearls bothering them and gave the pearls to me! I’m making some jewelry for Mother and Father right now but I thought they’d make some fun playthings for you two as well— or at least courting gifts for anyone you might fancy~” Jiang Yanli winked and held out a handful of pearls for them to pick through.

_ Courting gift…  _

If Wei Wuxian were an angler fish, his little bioluminescent light would have lit up above his head. He eagerly picked through the bunch and selected a few golden tinted pearls. 

“Thanks jie-jie!” He tucked them away and popped another vine of sea grapes into his mouth.

“Jiang Cheng?” Jiang Yanli offered the pearls to Jiang Cheng but he turned his nose at them. 

“No need.”

“Ahahaha it’s cause Jiang Cheng has no one to play with or give them to! Everyone’s scared of his perpetually scowling face!” Wei Wuxian joked. 

Jiang Yanli frowned. Jiang Cheng always seemed so moody and as his older sister she couldn’t help but want to see him cheery for once.

“Then, would you like this?” She turned away to a little coral alcove in her room.

Wei Wuxian came closer, also wanting a look. She returned with a small thing in her hands. It had a vibrant vermillion color and soft spikes covered its body. 

“It’s a baby sea cucumber!”

Jiang Cheng’s expression scrunched up even more. “Who would want that?!”

But Wei Wuxian’s face was intrigued. “That thing really… does have a similar…” His mind flashed back to what he saw; the memory was clear as day. 

“Then could I have it? I’ll keep it as my little sidekick~” Wei Wuxian smiled. 

“Hmph, as if that worm could do anything.” Jiang Cheng sniffed. 

“Then you can have it, A-Xian.” 

Wei Wuxian carefully took the little thing in his hands and held it up to his eyes. The thing he saw that day didn’t have spines but the shape really was quite similar.

“Hey there little guy! What’s your name?”

The sea cucumber wiggled a bit.

“Hmm… I don’t know what you’re supposed to name a sea cucumber. Whatever…” he paused and an idea struck him. 

“I’ll dub thee Sir Whatever (Suibian)!” 

Jiang Cheng face-palmed. Why was Wei Wuxian such an idiot?

The sea cucumber’s spikes bristled but Wei Wuxian smoothed them back.

“Ge-ge!” A childish voice called.

“Hm?” Wei Wuxian turned around and saw a merboy with a few of his friends behind him.

“Will you come play Go Fish! with us?” 

“Of course! Hey let me show you guys my new pet, Suibian!”

He rushed over, eager to show and tell about his new sidekick.

“Bye Jie-jie! Bye Mr. Grumpy!”

\---------------------------------

When Wei Wuxian and the merchildren had gone, Jiang Yanli turned to Jiang Cheng smiled.

“Jiang Cheng, let me take you to somewhere nice! There is a present for you I know you will definitely like.”

Jiang Cheng had to admit that his interest was piqued, so he obediently followed his sister out of the alcove. 

On the way, he contemplated on whether to consult Jiang Yanli about Wei Wuxian’s strange obsession. He had dealt with Wei Wuxian’s strange schemes before, but never easily and this time seemed to be even worse than that time he had tried to kidnap a dolphin’s calves. 

Besides, the human world was  _ different _ . He didn’t even know how a merman was supposed to get legs and walk like the people on the surface. That world was completely unknown except for a few measly tales, and it was most likely very dangerous as well. 

_ Ugh.  _ He couldn’t believe he was worrying himself over such a stupid person like Wei Wuxian. 

Jiang Cheng had never liked to small talk so his silence was normal except for the deeply concentrated look he had on his face. 

“Jiang Cheng, is there anything you’d like to tell me?” 

“It’s Wei Wuxian.”

“A-Xian? Has he gotten himself into something troublesome again?”

“No, not yet, but I’m sure he’s about to. He’s been going somewhere during the day and when he comes back he always goes to his cave to do something. I was suspicious that he was up to no good again so I followed him. Then I see this drawing of some guy on the wall and the next thing he tells me is that he wants to be human.”

“H-he what?” 

“He wants to be a human and go meet some random guy!” 

“A-Xian has always been curious about everything and is always doing things his own way.” Jiang Yanli chuckled.

“There’s no way I—we can let him do that! Does he know how dangerous the human world is?!”

Jiang Yanli’s smile disappeared. 

“You’re right A-Cheng, but once Wei Wuxian sets his mind on something, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not go through with it… Perhaps it would be best if we supported him best we can and make sure he’s safe while he pursues what… he wants to pursue.”

“...” Jiang Cheng looked mutely at his sister. 

“... I bet it’s not even possible anyway though.” He grumbled. 

“Let’s talk to him again when we get back. It’s important we know the full story and if he’s planning to do something we need to intervene with.”

“Ok.” 

“Jiang Cheng you’re such a good younger brother, worrying about A-Xian like that.” Jiang Yanli patted his head proudly.

“Hmph.”

They kept swimming and Jiang Yanli told Jiang Cheng that they had to go into shallower waters soon. As the water became lighter and closer to the surface, a grayish-brown thing bumped into Jiang Cheng. 

“?!!”

“Oh! Here he is! It looks like we didn’t need to go find him.”

“W-what?”

The thing twirled in the water facing Jiang Cheng, revealing two large and bright eyes and a shiny triangular nose. The moment their eyes met, an invisible connection formed.

“He’s a sea lion pup!” 

Jiang Cheng’s heart almost melted at the sight. He didn’t know why but a part of him adored furry and cute creatures like this sea lion. 

“F-for me?”

“Mmm. Unfortunately his mother died while hunting. This poor child waited for her for so long he almost starved to death. Luckily I found another sea lion family that was willing to help take care of him— at least until he can fend for himself.”

Jiang Cheng reached his hand out to the pup and stroked its head gently. The pup leaned into his touch. 

“The other sea lions haven’t been hostile but I think he feels quite lonely. I thought you would make a great friend for him.”

“I like him.”

“I knew you would.” 

“He’s still young so his swimming isn’t the strongest yet, and he needs to stay close to where he lives—” Jiang Yanli took Jiang Cheng’s hand and pulled him with her until they broke through the surface of the water. “—there.” She gestured to the rocky shore that was close by. On it were several other sea lions casually basking in the Sun.

The pup swam up with them for a bit of air.  

“It’s about time for us to go back. Say goodbye for now and you can come back later.”

Jiang Yanli gave the sea lion a kiss on the head and Jiang Cheng also patted it again before reluctantly parting.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are some adorable pictures of seals and sea lions!
> 
> https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-seals-look-like-dogs/


End file.
